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ADDRESS 

OF 

Hon. J. M. ASHLEY, 

AT THE 

FOURTH ANNUAL BANQUET 




OHIO REPUBLICAN LEAGUE 



MEMORIAL HALL. 

Toledo, Ohio, 

FEBRUARY 12, 1891 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 



Evening Post Job Print, Broadway and Fulton St., N. Y. 



ADDRESS 

OF 

Hon. J. M. ASHLEY, 

AT THE 

FOURTH ANNUAL BANQUET 




OHIO REPUBLICAN LEAGUE, 



MEMORIAL HALL, 

Toledo, Ohio, 

FEBRUARY 12, 1891 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST. 

/^^ 

Evening Post Job Print, Broadway and Fulton St., N. Y. \'\ 



\v 






/ 



ET^-si 



Toastmaster: Gen. WM. H. GIBSON, Tiffin, Ohio. 

First Toad: 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

"How humble, yet how hopeful he could be; 
How in good fortune and in ill the same ; 
Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he, 

Thirsty for gokl, nor feverish for fame." 

Tom Taylor in " London Punch." 

Response by 

Hon. J. M. ASHLEY, Toledo, Ohio. 

'03 



Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen : 

At Alton, Illinois, in October, 1S5S, I first met 
Abraham Lincoln. It was on the day he closed the 
historic joint debate of that year, with Stephen A. 
Douglas. 

My anxiety to see and hear the man whose great 
speech at Springfield in June had electrified the 
entire country was so intense that immediately 
after our election in Ohio I ran down over the 
Wabash, and saw and heard Mr. Lincoln and Mr. 
Douglas in their closing debate at Alton. 

I returned home at once, so as to be present and 
celebrate my first election to Congress. 

I had accepted an invitation from the Republicaix 
Committee of Illinois to accompany Governor Chase* 
and speak at several points in that State and remain-, 
until the close of the campaign in November. 

The plan for the IlHnois campaign was discussedj 
and agreed upon at the Tremont House in Chicago. 
Here we met John Went worth, Elihu B. Washburn, 
Owen Lovejoy and Joseph Medill (then as now, 
editor of the Chicago Tribune) and many others. 

This was a memorable meeting, and from that 
hour Mr. Lincoln's nomination for the Presidency 
iu 1800 became a probability. 

I gave this meeting an enthusiastic account of 
the debate at Alton, and when I stated that al- 
though the present campaign might not result in 
the election of Mr. Lincoln as Senator, yet his 
speeches had made it impossible for Mr. Douglas to 
be elected Pi-esident, and that a great leader had 
arisen, I commanded the attention of eager listen^. 
ers. 



Mr. Lincoln came to Ohio in the fall of 1859 to 
take part in the Gubernatorial campaign, and de- 
livered memorable speeches at Columbus and Cin- 
cinnati. Under the leadership of Judge Swayne a 
distinct Lincoln party arose in Ohio, which in a 
few months became a great factor in Mr. Lincoln's 
nomination for the Presidency. 

Northern Pro-slavery Champions. 

From 18i4 until 18G1 the slave-bai'ons were so en- 
trenched in the Government that they demanded 
as a condition to the political recognition of any 
Northern leader that they publicly commit them- 
selves by deeds as well as words to their service. 
They demanded that all Northern aspirants to the 
Presidency should, in addition to their general sub- 
serviency, give undoubted evidence of their fidelity 
and fitness for so exalted a position, by causing to 
be caj)tured and returned to tlie South any fugitive 
slaves who might be found in the cities of their resi- 
dence. 

Whereupon, the partisans of Filmore, then the 
acting President, who after approving the fugitive 
slave bill was intriguing for the Whig presidential 
nomination in 1852, caused the officials of Filmore's 
own appointment to seize at his home in Buffalo 
and return a fugitive slave in order that the slave- 
barons might know that their recently enacted slave- 
catching law could be executed in the city of Fil- 
more's residence, and so executed that they could be 
eye-witnesses to the subserviency of their allies, 
who everywhere in that day abounded throughout 
the North. The manner in which that disgraceful 
act was performed at Buffalo was so shocking in its 
brutality, that after Filmore's retirement from the 
Presidency he drifted into obscurity and died un- 
wept and unlamented. 

Webster's friends in Boston joined with alacrity 



in sending- Sims back to slavery, hoping by this 
shameful act of abasement to commend their great 
political idol to the slave-barons for President. He 
did not get a single vote from them in the nominat- 
ing convention, and soon afterwards retired to his 
home in Marshfield and saw, as did Belshazzer of 
old, the handwriting on the wall. Wherever he 
turned his eyes there appeared the sentence of doom, 
as out of the darkness came the hand with index 
finger pointing to the words, " The 7th of March." 

Mr. Webster died a disappointed and humiliated 
man, with the personal knowledge that the slave- 
barons could be as exacting and false to him as to 
one of their own bondmen. 

The pulpit was but little, if any, beliind in its base 
subserviency. A firo bell at night could not empty 
a fashionable church in Boston or New York quicker 
than it would then have been emptied if its parson 
had honestly prayed or preached for the liberation of 
the slave. So debasing and brutal was this infernal 
spirit, that the Rev. Dr. Dewey, of Boston, pub- 
licly declared " that if the Constitution required it, 
he would send his own mother back into slavery." 
And yet, this self-righteous worshiper of Mammon 
and the Constitution claimed to be an American 
citizen and a descendant of the Puritans! 

After such a statement of our moral condition as 
a nation, you will not be surprised when I tell you 
that this reverend individual was but an exaggerated 
type of a whole generation of vipers, who, in 1861, 
rolled up their eyes in holy horror, and demanded 
peace at any price and our absolute submission to 
the terms of the slave-barons; everywhere crying 
out: "Give us the Constitution as it is, and the 
Union as it was." And many so-called statesmen 
in the North lifted up their voices in chorus and 
wept and said — Amen. 



Mr. Lincoln, as he appeared on the Plains of 
Illinois. 

I present you this dark and sad picture in order 
that I may show you more distinctly the colossal 
form and plain but manly face of Abraham Lincoln. 
Behold him, as at the tomb of the martyred Love- 
joy and on the plains of Illinois he emerges un- 
heralded from the shadow of this national degrada- 
tion and national dishonor, and with the words of 
truth and soberness on his lips, proclaims: " A house 
divided against itself cannot stand." " I believe this 
Govej-nment cannot endure permanently, half slave 
and half free." That was the keynote which 
touched the hearts and anointed the eyes of millions. 
It was in that dark hour the fitly spoken word, and 
like an eternal ray of light it illuminated the dim 
and shadowy future. 

The Lincoln-Douglas Joint Debates. 

In this spirit, and on this elevated moral plane, 
Mr. Lincoln met Mr. Douglas and conducted his 
great campaign in Illinois, and successfully drove 
him from every controverted position. Subsequent- 
ly, in his desperation, Mr. Douglas declared "that 
he did not care whether slavery was voted up or 
voted down." 

Mr. Lincoln did care, the great heart of the nation 
cared, every honest man in the world cared whether 
slavery was voted up or voted down. And when I 
heard Mr. Lincoln proclaim at Alton " that it was 
a question between right and wrong," his face 
glowed as if tinged with a halo, and to me he looked 
the prophet of hope and joy, when with dignity and 
emphasis he said : ' ' That is the real issue. That is 
the issue that will continue in tins country when 
these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself 
shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between 
these two principles, right and wrong, throughout 
the world. They are the two principles that have 



stood face to face from the beginning of time, and 
will ever continue to struggle, until the common 
right of humanity shall ultimately triujnph." 

The tongues of these two men have been silent for 
a quarter of a century. The one who did care 
" whether slavery was voted up or voted down " 
will live in the grateful remembrance of his country- 
men and mankind; while he who declared " that he 
did not care " will only be remembered as the man 
whom Abraham Lincoln defeated for President. 

Eesult of the Presidential Election in 1860. 

Two years after his defeat for Senator, Mr. Lin- 
coln was nominated and elected President, receiving 
180 electoral votes and Judge Douglas but 12 
electoral votes. Breckinridge of Kentucky received 
T2 votes, and Bell of Tennessee 39 votes. 

If Mr. Lincoln had not received a majority of all 
the electoral votes cast, the choice of a President 
would, as provided by that indefensible and anti- 
democratic provision of our Constitution, have de- 
volved on the House of Representatives, each State 
having one vote (except where the Congressional 
delegation was equally divided), in which event its 
vote would be lost. The choice of a President at 
that time by the House would have been limited to 
either Lincoln, Breckinridge or Bell. The conspira- 
tors put Breckinridge electoral tickets in the North- 
ern States with the deliberate purpose of excluding 
Douglas from the three highest, and thus keeping 
him out of the contest in the House. 

An election by the House of Representatives of a 
President for 1860-61 was part of the original pro- 
gramme of the conspirators when they deliber- 
ately divided the Democratic party at Charles- 
ton and Baltimore and determined to defeat 
Douglas. Nothing is more certain, had that elec- 
tion gone into the House of Representatives, than 



that Mr. Lincoln would not have been chosen Presi- 
dent, as the Republicans could not have commanded 
the votes of a sufficient number of States to elect 
him. 

With Mr. Buchanan in the President's office, to 
obey the orders of the conspirators until they had 
accomplished their purpose, the result would have 
been a so-called compromise and the election of 
Breckinridge. 

In the light of all that has happened, no mortal 
man can even now presage what would have been the 
ultimate result had Breckinridge at that time been 
clothed with the power of the Presidential office. 

That this countr}^ would have become a consoli- 
dated slave empire during the administration of 
Breckinridge is more than probable. The pro- 
slavery amendment to our National Constitution, 
which was submitted by the Northern compro- 
misers of the Thirty-sixth Congress (and ratified by 
the vote of Ohio), would have been engrafted into 
the National Constitution, and slavery thus en- 
trenched could not have been abolished except 
by the consent of every State, thus practically 
making slavery constitutional and perpetual, with 
no remedy for its abolition but armed revolu- 
tion. Fortunately for the future of the Republic, 
Mr. Lincoln's election defeated this deeply laid plot 
of the pro-slavery conspirators and their subsequent 
mad rebellion, and war on the Union enabled him 
and the National Congress to abolish slavery and 
make the nation all free instead of all slave. 

From the day of Mr. Lincoln's inauguration until 
the tragic close of his eventful life, no one who did 
not know and often see him can portray the tre- 
mendous mental and physical strain under which 
he labored, nor can human tongue describe the in- 
numerable petty annoyances to which he was sub- 
jected, nor the intrigues and conspiracies which he 
encountered and mastered. 



Mk. Lincoln and the Radical Wing of the 
Republican Partv. 

While Mr. Lincoln was, beyond all question, as 
deeply impressed with the necessity of saving the 
Union as any one of the great men with whom I 
served, there were often radical differences of opinion 
as to the best means to be adopted to that end. This 
was in large part the result of early political train- 
ing and political affiliation of the men, who were 
leaders in the Republican party. 

The advanced or radical wing of the Republican 
party was made up largely of men who had been 
the recognized leaders of the anti-slavery wing of 
the Democratic party. Such men as Rantoul, Sumner 
and Boutwell, of Massachusetts; Hannibal Hamlin, 
of Maine; Hale, of New Hampshire; David Wilmot, 
of Pennsylvania; General Dix and Governor Fenton, 
of New York; Chase and others in Ohio; Julian, of 
Indiana; Trumbull, of Illinois; Doolittle, of Wiscon- 
sin; Bingham and Beaman, of Michigan; Frank P. 
Blair and Gratz Brown, of Missouri, and many others 
whom I need not name. 

These men were all trained in the school of Jeffer- 
son, and our personal and political affiliations had 
been with the anti-slavery wing of the Democratic 
party. 

Mr. Lincoln had been trained in the old Whig party, 
and Henry Clay, its great compromising chief, was his 
early political leader, and he voted for General Scott 
for President in 1852, notwithstanding the platform 
on the subject of slavery. I voted that year for Hale 
and Julian, because of the offensive Democratic plat- 
form, which was no more objectionable than that of 
the Whigs. 

I have not read either of those platforms since 
1852, but if young students of political history will 
go into any library and read them they will be 



10 

■found practically duplicates, and so subservient to 
the slave -barons, as to make the cheek of every true 
American blush with shame to-day. 

When Mr, Lincoln came into the Presidency he 
had not advanced as far beyond the old party plat- 
forms as Sumner and Chase, Hale and Wilmot, and 
the men v^ho had crossed the Eubicon and voted for 
Hale and Julian in 1852. But within two years he 
was abreast of them, and before the close of his life 
they recognized him as their leader. 

What wonder, then, that at the outset our differ- 
ences with Mr. Lincoln should have been marked 
and pronounced on some of the most important 
questions which confronted us? 

We were disappointed, to begin with, in the make 
up of his Cabinet. I Wanted Fessenden of Maine, or 
Collamer of Vermont, for Secretary of State, Gov- 
ernor Morgan of New York or Zack Chandler of 
Michigan, for Secretary of the Treasury, Edwin M. 
Stanton of Ohio, for Secretary of War, Henry Win- 
ter Davis of Maryland, for Secretary of the Navy, 
George W. Summers of West Virginia, for Secretary 
of the Interior, James Speed of Kentucky, Post- 
master-General, and Edmund Bates of Missouri, for 
Attorney- General. 

These men were all old line Whigs, except Mr. 
Stanton, and not one of the border slave States had 
voted for Mr. Lincoln. I proposed, as a matter of 
expediency, to strengthen the Union sentiment in 
the border slave States by loading their conservative 
Union Whig leaders with the honors and patronage 
of the Government. And then, I did not think it 
expedient to take Seward or Chase or Cameron out 
of the Senate. 

Instead of 75,000 men for three months, I wanted 
the call issued for 500,000 men for the war. Instead 
of committing ourselves in any way on the question 
of slavery and the status of slaves, we thought that 
the proclamation should simply promise that all per- 



11 

sons who were loyal to the Government and gave it 
their support should receive the protection of the 
Government. I wanted the war to be conducted 
strictly according to the laws of war, and the army 
to be moved not in conformity with part}'' platforms 
or the decree of any court, wiiich might be pre- 
sided over by some timid or disloyal judge. I 
wanted the writ of habeas corpus suspended 
wherever, within the jurisdiction of the United 
States, the local police authorities could not enfore 
the law, and the public safety required it. In short, 
I wanted the w^ar conducted as if we were in 
earnest, and determined to preserve the Union at 
whatever cost; and I believed then, as we all be- 
lieve now, that the only way at that time to secure 
an enduring peace was to destroy the slave power 
and make such a rebellion forever impossible in the 
future. 

Tlie entire radical wing of the party were opposed 
to the authority which Mr. Lincoln assumed to re- 
organize the rebel State governments. Our dis- 
cussions on this subject were often set and sharp. 
We finally told him that if he attempted to carry 
out his programme without the consent or approval 
of Congress, that the House of Representatives 
would refuse to count the electoral votes even if 
they should be cast for hi in by Tennessee and 
Louisiana, and we did so refuse to permit their votes 
to be counted. 

And yet, through all these earnest discussions, 
sometimes waxing warm, as they of necessity did, 
there never was any estrangement between us, nor 
an unkind act to be recalled or regretted. 

Mr. Lincoln's Mental Constitution. 

There was in Mr. Lincoln's mental constitution a 
marvelous blending of sunshine and shadow, of 
earnestness and innocent fun, of profound tliought 



12 

and delightful humor, of hopeful prophecy and in- 
exorable logic. 

In estimating the mental and moral qualities of 
any man of mark, it is due to hitn, not less than to 
ourselves, that we form a rational judgment by a 
careful analysis of all the peculiar traits and moods 
which go so largely to make up the life and charac- 
ter of every such man. 

This analysis I made for myself when Mr. Lincoln 
was President, and while I shall express freely and 
frankly my deliberately formed opinion of Mr. 
Lincoln's character, I will be warranted in present- 
ing a few of his striking utterances and well 
authenticated acts, so that you may form an inde- 
pendent opinion for yourselves. 

Before such an assembly and on an occasion like 
this, I may properly relate two or three occurrences 
which will illustrate the masterly manner in which 
he managed all kinds and conditions of men. 

The Way Mr. Lincoln Managed Mr. Greeley. 

During the war the number of volunteer peace 
negotiators who made pilgrimages to Washington, 
and occupied the time of Mr. Lincoln and members 
of Congress, were legion. 

This brigade of budding Talleyrands was made 
up largely of peace cranks. Confederate sympa- 
thizers, gentlemen ambitious of distinguishing them- 
selves by playing the role of mediators, and all sorts 
and conditions of political schemers, who kept the 
President, and all public men in Washington who 
would listen to them, awake at night, as they poured 
into their unwilling ears their visionary schemes. 

It was a time for fighting and supplying the sinews 
of war to our armies, and not for the game of 
diplomacy, except so far as such diplomacy tended 
to support armies in the field and maintain peace 
abroad until treason was destroyed at home. 



13 

We were particularly anxious that no act should 
be done by the President which, by any possibility, 
could be distorted by European nations into a recog- 
nition of the Confederate Government. 

Mr. Greeley was one of those who had worried the 
President by insisting on opening negotiations with 
the Confederate Commissioners at Niagara Falls, 
with the view of securing an early peace. 

The world and Mr. Greeley were alike surprised 
one morning by the public announcement that the 
President had authorized Mr. Greeley to proceed to 
Niagara Falls and see what he could do as an apostle 
of peace. This was a "commission" which Mr. 
Greeley did not expect and had not sought. But, 
after all he had said and written, he could not very 
well decline it. Everybody was up in arms against 
intrusting any one with such a mission, and of all 
other men the guileless philosopher of the Tribune. 
Of course, I was among the first at the White House 
to protest. Mr. Lincoln explained to me why he 
did it, and added, "Don't you worry; nothing will 
come of it," and there did not. Mr. Greeley accom- 
plished nothing, and was supremely disgusted with 
himself for what he had said and done in the matter 
of peace negotiations at Niagara Falls, and never 
again troubled the President in that direction. 

This humorous stroke of diplomacy on the part of 
Mr. Lincoln nipped in the bud the ambitious schemes 
of scores of would-be negotiators, and gave him and 
all public men at Washington comparative peace 
from their importunities. 

Julian's Story of Lovejoy and Stanton. 

Mr. Lincoln's manner of dealing with men of fiery 
temperaments is well illustrated in a story told by 
Hon. George W. Julian, of Indiana, in a magazine 
article some four or five years ago. Mr. Lovejoy 
of Illinois, at the head of some self-appointed com- 



14 

mittee, had called on the President, and after ex- 
plamiug the scheme which they had in hand, look- 
ing to an increase in the efficiency of the Western 
soldiers, procured an order from Mr. Lincoln on the 
Secretary of War for its execution. Lovejoy and his 
committee repaired at once to the War Department, 
and after explaining the matter, Mr. Stanton per- 
emptorily refused to comply with it. " But," said the 
impulsive Lovejoy, " we have the President's order 
here with us, sir." " Did Lincoln give you an order 
of that kind?" roared the irate Secretary. "He 
did, sir," answered Lovejoy. " Then he is a damned 
fool," said the fiery Stanton. "Do you mean to say 
that the President is a damned fool?" asked the be- 
wildered Lovejoy. "Yes," again roared the Secre- 
tary, "if he gave you such an order as that." The 
amazed Congressman and his committee immedi- 
ately returned to the White House and reported in 
full the result of their visit. 

"Did Stanton say I was a damned fool?" asked 
the President, and Lovejoy and his committee joined 
in affirming that he did. After a moment or two, 
the President said, " Well, gentlemen, if Stanton 
said I was a damned fool, there must be something 
wrong about this, for Stanton is nearly always 
right. I must see the Secretary about it before 
anything can be done." Only a great man could 
have so borne himself. 

Nasby quoted on Ashley. 

On no one subject did we disagree with Mr. 
Lincoln so radically as that of reconstruction. It 
was a subject ever present with me, from the 
day I laid before my committee the first reconstruc- 
tion bill which I drew up at the. extra session of 
Congress in July, 1861. 

I assumed from the first that vre should put down 
the rebellion, and that the question of questions- 



15 

would be the reorganization of constitutional gov- 
ernments in the seceded States as a condition ta 
their representation in Congress. 

Had Mr. Lincoln lived, I believe he would even- 
tually have adopted the views held by a majority of 
the Republicans in Congress. 

After an unusually long and warm discussion one 
morning on this subject, I rose to go, quite dissatis- 
fied with the result of my interview and exhibit- 
ing a little more feeling than I ought, when 
the President called out, and said: ''Ashley, 
that was a great speech you made out in Ohio 
the other day." I turned, and, I fear with some 
irritation in both manner and voice, said: "I have 
made no speech anywhere, Mr. President, and 
have not been out of Washington." He laughed 
and said: "Well, I see Nasby says that in con- 
sequence of one speech made by Jim Ashley, 
four hundred thousand niggers moved into Wood 
County last week, and it must have taken a great 
speech to do that." Of course I joined in the laugh, 
and then Mr. Lincoln, in his kindly manner, said: 
"Come up soon, Ashley, and we will take up re- 
construction again." 

By the gentlest of methods this great leader held 
together all the discordant elements in the Repub- 
lican party, both in Congress and the country. 

Judge Holman's Testimony. 

I could relate from personal knowledge incidents 
which would illustrate his unaffected simplicity and 
tenderness. But instead of telling one of my own 
I will relate one that is fresher to me, and may be to 
you. I read it on the cars while on my way home. 
It was told only a day or two ago by Judge Holman, 
of Indiana, long a leading Democratic member of 
Congress, and one of the best men with whom I 
served. This is his testimony: 



16 

"I can see how Lincoln erred on the side of 
humanity. His nature was essentially humane. 
That was the charm of his character. But he was 
an able man, too. You ask me if I have not seen 
a good many men like Lincoln in southern Indiana 
and Illinois. I at first thought I should say yes, 
that I knew four or five, but not one of these, though 
he may have had a superficial resemblance to Lin- 
coln, had anything of Lincoln's reality. He was such 
a plain person that people often misconceived him 
and thought him to be artful. He was polite, but 
his plainness was also a genuine endowment. I re- 
call when I went to see him about a boy, the son of 
a postmaster, who had opened a letter, and in it was 
some money and he took the money. His parents 
were overwhelmed with shame and sorrow, for the 
boy had never done anything wrong before. Judge 
Sweet of our State sent by me to Mr. Lincoln an 
appeal for the boy's pardon. It seems that under 
the war pressure they had been in the habit in that 
post office of opening tlie mails to see what the 
rebels on the Kentucky shore were about. The boy 
had seen them open the letters of other people, and 
the example had infected him, and this letter having 
some money in it he took the money from fright or 
from some other reason. I went to Mr. Lincoln, 
and he said: 'Sweet is an awful rebel, but Sweet is 
an honest man if there ever was one. I know his 
handwriting. He is a bad rebel, but he won't tell a 
lie. If Sweet says that this boy ought to be pardoned, 
1 reckon it will have to be so.' So he pardoned the 
boy. Now, a man from my part of the world could 
understand that to be natural and not artful. Lin- 
coln was able, shrewd, but above all tender." 

The Wade and Davis Manifesto. 

The first time I called at the White House, after 
Senator Wade and Henry Winter Davis issued their 
celebrated manifesto against Mr. Lincoln, the Presi- 
dent, as he advanced to take my hand, said: 
" Ashley, I am glad to see by the papers that you 
refused to sign the Wade and Davis manifesto." 
"Yes, Mr. President," I answered, "I could not do 
that," and added, for 



ir 

"Close as siti and suH'eriiig Joined 
We niiircli to late abreast." 

It was a picture as we thus stood, ni}^ lips quivering 
with emotion, while tears stood in the eyes of both. 

(3n many occasions during the darkest hours of 
our great conflict men who were in accord were often 
in such close touch with each other that each could 
feel the pulse-beat of the other's heart. 

This incident tells its own story. Mr. Lincoln re- 
garded both Mr. Wade and Mr. Davis as able and 
honest men, and he knew they were my warm per- 
sonal friends. He also knew that nothing but a 
sense of public duty could have separated me from 
them. No one regretted their mistake more than 
I did; and, knowing my close relations to them, Mr. 
Lincoln did not hesitate to speak to me of their 
mistake in the kindest spirit. 

The Emancipation Proclamation. 

Eighteen hundred and sixty two was like 1890, an 
off year for Republicans. After my election in 1S62, 
I was invited by telegraph to come to Washing- 
ton. When I called on the President, he congratu- 
lated me on my triumph, and said: " How did you 
do it?" I answered, "It was your emancipation 
proclamation, Mr. President, that did it." In a few 
moments he said, " Well, how do you like the pro- 
clamation ?" I answered that I liked it as far as 
it went, and added, "but, Mr. President, if I had 
been Commander-in-Chief, I should not have given 
the enemy one hundred days' notice of my purpose 
to strike him, at the expiration of that time, in his' 
most vulnerable point, nor would I have off ered any 
apology for doing so great and noble an act." He 
laughed and enjoyed my hit, and after a moment's 
pause said, " Ashley, that's a centre shot." 



18 



Mk. Lin'coln at Hampton Roadw. 

No one event during the entire War of the Re- 
belHon alarmed us so much as the meeting at 
Hampton Roads, between Alexander H. Stephens, 
R. M. T. Hunter and Judge Campbell, formerly of 
our United States Supreme Court, and the President 
and Mr. Seward. 

The night I learned that ''Blair's scheme," as it 
was called, was about to be attempted, I went to 
the White House and protested against it. When it 
became known that Mr. Seward had actually gone 
down to Hampton Roads alone, every loyal man in 
Washington was white with indignation, and the 
demand was made that the President should go 
down at once unless Mr. Seward was recalled. Mr. 
Lincoln went dowai, and again nothing was done. 
Mr. Lincoln successfully handled the wily Con- 
federate Commissioners at this meeting — put them 
thoroughly in the wrong, and so defeated their last 
desperate effort to extricate themselves from the 
fate that all men of judgment then knew to be in- 
evitable if the Union men of the nation but did 
their duty. 

Before Mr. Lincoln started for Hampton Roads he 
said to a friend of mine " that nothing would come 
of it," and when he returned to Washington w^e 
knew that the end of the Confederacy was near, and 
that the Union was to remain unbroken. 

Constitutionally cautious, and by political training 
a conservative, Mr. Lincoln nevertheless kept 
abreast of public opinion, and in his last annual mes- 
sage to Congress announced with a clearness of 
statement which could not be misinterpreted, and 
with -an impressiveness befitting the dignity of his 
great office, that — 

" In presenting the abandonment of armed resist- 
ance to national authority on the part of the insur- 



19 

gents as the only indispensable condition to ending 
the war on the part of the Government, I retract 
nothing heretofore said as to slaver}". I repeat the 
declaration made a year ago, that while I remain in 
my present position I shall not attempt to retract or 
modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall I 
return to slavery any person who is free by the 
terms of that proclamation or by any of the acts of 
Congress. 

" If the people should, by whatever mode or 
means, make it an executive duty to re-enslave 
such persons, another, and not I, must be the in- 
strument to perform it." 



Great Events Develop Great Men. 

Seldom in the history of mankind have great men 
produced great events. It is great events ^vhich de- 
velop great men. But for the rebellion our match- 
less generals, Grant and Thomas, Sherman and 
Sheridan, would have been unknown in history as 
great soldiers, and not one nor all of them could 
have produced such a rebellion. But for that 
attempted revolution scores of men in civil life who 
will appear in history as among our leading states- 
men would in all probability have been unknown in 
the councils of the Republic; they would have passed 
their lives in domestic or business pursuits had not 
the opportunity been given them of service in the 
great conflict for saving the nation's life. And Mr. 
Lincoln himself had not that kind of leadership 
which could conspire and plot and surround himself 
with followers to inaugurate a revolution. He was 
pi'e-eminently fitted by nature to be the representa- 
tive of law and order, to group and bind together all 
citizens of the Republic who were desirous of peace 
and union, and to preserve liberty and constitutional 
government. As an historical figure he was, in fact, 
a product of the great anti slavery revolution of 
which he became the recognized leader. But for 



20 

the slave-baron's rebellion it might never have been 
his lot. 

" The applause of listning Senates to command ; 
The threats of pain and ruin to despise; 
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land, 
And read his history in a nation's eyes." 



Mr. Lincoln as Executive, Diplomat and Mili- 
tary Commander. 

Mr. President : 

It was my privilege in boyhood and early man- 
hood to meet and to know a number of the able 
statesmen of this country who were in power prioi- 
to the War of the Rebellion. 

During my service in Congress I came to know 
more intimately the men who were in pul)lic life 
during the Presidency of Mr. Lincoln, and I often 
compared them with the idols of my boyhood. I 
need not tell you that I am better able now to judge 
character than I was then, and to compare them 
with Mr. Lincoln. 

As an Executive, charged with the care and respon- 
sibility of a great government during the War of the 
Rebellion, and with the organization and direction 
of great armies, he was, as I estimate men, an abler 
and safer President than Webster or Clay, or Chase 
or Seward would have been under like conditions 
and surrounded by like environments. 

As a diplomat, he was the superior of Talleyrand, 
for without duplicity or falsehood he moulded, and 
conquered with truth as his weapon and candor for 
his defensive armor. 

As a military strategist and commander, he was 
the equal, if not the superior, of his great gen- 
erals. 

Asa man, he was merciful and just and absolutely 
without pride or arrogance; and to crown all, there 



21 

was an atmosphere surroiintling his daily hfe which 
made friendships that last beyond the grave. 

" He was a man, take liini for all in all, 
I shall not look upon his like again." 

Jackson on Horseback and Lincoln on Foot. 

During the last half of the first century of the Re- 
public two men filled the Presidential office whose 
personality stands out pre-eminently conspicuous 
above those who immediately preceded or followed 
them in that office. Every one who hears me will 
know to whom I refer before I can pronounce the 
names of Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. 

Both Southern born, they were unquestionably 
the two most striking figures of tlieir day and gen- 
eration. And yet how unlike. 

As I read history, Andrew Jackson was the first 
of our Presidents who appeared booted and spurred 
and on horseback; and though his term of office 
was in a time of profound peace, he ruled his coun- 
try and his party with an iron hand and the auto- 
cratic will of a crowned king. 

Abraham Lincoln came into the Presidency on 
the eve of the greatest i-ebellion in history, and 
though Commander-in-Chief of the mightiest army 
then in the world, and practically clothed with 
unlimited power, he did not magnify himself, nor 
attempt to rule with military rigor either his coun- 
try or his party. 

On the contrary, he sought to knoiv the will of 
his countrymen with no thought of party or self. 
He sought to know their will so that he might 
administer the government as the general judgment 
of the nation should indicate, but, nevertheless, in 
accord with the promptings of his own great heart, 
which demanded that it should be administered in 
justice and mercy, "with chaiity for all and malice 
towards none." 



99 



The thought that dominated him was his earnest 
desire to conform his acts to the considerate 
judgment of all loyal men, and thus be able the 
better to discharge the duties of his great office, 
preserve the Government unimpaired and secure its 
perpetual unity and peace by enacting into consti- 
tutional law the legitimate results of the war. 

For a moment let there pass in review before your 
mind's eye the picture of Andrew Jackson as Presi- 
dent entering Eichmond after the close of the great 
rebellion (especially if Calhoun had been at the head 
of the defeated Confederate Government), and then 
recall the manner in which every one knows that 
Abraham Lincoln entered it. 

There can be no doubt that Jackson would have 
entered it duly heralded and on horseback amid the 
booming of cannon, the waiving of banners, and sur- 
rounded by his victorious army, marching to the 
music of fife and drum. 

Those who have read of Jackson's imperious will 
and fiery temper know that the conquered would 
have been made to feel and remember the iron hand 
and iron will of the conqueror. 

You all remember how Mr, Lincoln entered Rich- 
mond, on foot, unheralded and practically unat- 
tended. He thus entered the Capital of the late 
Confederate Government to teach the South and the 
nation a needed lesson — the lesson of mercy and for- 
giveness. 

If he could, he would have entered Richmond bear- 
ing aloft the nation's banner " unstained by human 
blood." As he walked up the silent and deserted 
streets of Richmond the colored people were the only 
ones to meet him, and they gave their great deliverer a 
timid, quiet and undemonstrative welcome by stand- 
ing on each side of the streets through which he 
passed with uncovered heads. During his walk of 
nearly two miles the colored children, after a time, 
drew nearer to him, and at last a little girl came so 



23 

close that lie took tlie child by the hand and spoke 
kindly to it, obeying the injunction of that simple 
and subhme utterance, which touches all human 
hearts: " Suffer little children to come unto me, and 
forbid them not." 

As I look back and recall many of the wonderful 
acts of this wonderful man, this was, to me, one 
among the most impressive and touching, and to- 
night presents to my mind a picture of moral 
grandeur, such as the world never before looked 
upon, a scene such as the future can only witness 
when like causes reproduce such an occasion — and 
such a man. 

•' Ah, if ill coming times 
Some giant evil arise, 
And honor falter and jjale, 
His were a name to conjure with ! 
God send his like again !" 

As the colossal figure of Lincoln casts its shadow 
down the centuries, it will be a guide to all coming 
generations, inspiring, as it did, with courage and 
hope all loyal men during the darkest hours of the 
great struggle for our national life, when he — 

" Faitliful stood with prophet finger 
Pointing toward the blessed to be, 
When beneath the spread of Heaven 
Every creature shall be free. 

" Feai'less wlien the lips of evil 
Breathed their blackness on his name. 
Trusting in a noble life time 
For a si)otless after fame." 

And his contemporaries, while they live, and his 
countrymen for all time, will cherish the thought 
that neither time nor distance, nor things present, 
nor things to come, can dim the halo which sur- 
rounds and glorifies the unselfish and manly life of 
Abraham Lincoln. 



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